How to Choose Childcare

Just go and visit 5 or more different places and talk to the caretakers. You will just get a feel for each one. When my son went to daycare I wanted little to no TV and outside time every day. I wanted healthy snacks and other kids he enjoyed. I wanted a caring caregiver who was sweet and loving. I also wanted a really stimulating environment with lots to do and field trips and lots of hands on activities. I ended up picking a woman who ran a small home daycare with 5 kids. She was AWESOME and a perfect fit. She had boys herself and was very energetic and loved getting the kids out every day doing cool things. I had to interview about 9 different places/people before I found one I really liked.

As a provider myself, this is what I tell parents who are looking: make sure you are comfortable w/the person who will be w/your child the most...I run a home daycare, so I really don't know what to tell you to look for in facilities, other than child/adult ratio (and of course, there are laws regulating this), but also the cleanliness of the facility and level of education and experience of caregivers.

For homes, are they licensed? Is it clean (and I do NOT mean neat, as in no toys anywhere...my daycare is always strewn w/ toys...there is no way around it w/ lil ones all day!) but as in disinfected regularly, stuf like that. And like facilities, experience and education do help...I learned a LOT in my classes before I started daycare.

And first impressions are pretty accurate in my experience. I do NOT do interviews during working hours, but if a parent plans on using me and wants to come meet the other kids and bring her child once or twice before leaving them, I am ok w/ that...it's good for everyone involved. If you feel the person is loving, honest and will care for your child while you work so you do not need to worry about anything, it might be worth a try. And DEFINITELY interview multiple places...I always encourage potential families to check out other providers...so they can see what a good job I do!

Also, if this is your first experience w/ daycare, ask for a copy of the policies, what days are closed but still paid, what they do about sick days, things like that.

Best of luck to you! If you find the right fit, this transition will not be as difficult as you think!

I also check to see if they have any violations. Here is the state website for that. It also shows if they are registered.

http://www.dfps.state.tx.us/Child_Care/About_Child_Care_L...

Criteria will change based on age of your children and preference. My children are in a home day care. When they started at 6 wks & 18 months it was location, provider/ child ratio (2/8), space (small), rate, bilingual. Then several months ago we noticed our daughter was not sleeping at night, had some behavioral issues ect (she is 3 ½) found out the underlining issues (to much ideal time, no routine, space ect) and switched to another home provider with same criteria however provider/ child ratio (1/4), Space (Large!), and added preschool curriculum and routine. My kids now come home tired and the behavioral issues have been curved.

You need to make sure the provider or daycare center is on the Department of Family and Protective Services website. You can check out their inspections and see what kind of problem that they have had if any. Also I belong to an association that is based out of Plano, http://www.pickofnorthtexas.com. Check us out and see if their some providers that you would like to visit. I live in Allen and have 2 openings. We are all in-home based day cares and belong to the states licensing. Good Luck!

I may sound like a broken record, but get in touch with our local NACCRRA. It is a child care resource and referal agency. You call them and for a nominal fee they do the base legwork for you - simply tell the person what you want in a facility from location, to cost to child to teacher ratio (which at 1.5years is 1 to 8 by state - look for lower than that!!) if you want curriculum or appropriate activities - whatever you want - ask for it and they are knowledgable of the programs and have no skin in the game for any of them. They help you narrow down to about five locations that meet your criteria and then YOU get to go visit and make the final decision. They just do that first leg of the work. If you don't like the five, you can call them back and have them do another search! So helpful
FYI - the facilities have to be properly licensed and meet certain requirements mentioned by moms here.
Even if you don't want to use the service,the site offers tons of information on how to identify QUALITY child care - for example - are there clearly defined areas for play, rest and eating. Are toys, games and pictures at the child's level and age appropriate, etc. These are free checklists that you just download and use when you go visit the places you are interested in.
here is the link to our areas child care resource and referral agency - best of luck!
http://campfirefw.org/CampFire/Families/FindChildCare/Sea...

Two pieces of advice:
Visit NAEYC.com and look for accredited childcare. They have very high standards - much higher than the state agencies.
Don't put too much pressure on yourself, and continually evalulate how it's going. It's hard to choose the 1st place, but the reality is that 2 weeks, 2 months, or 2 years later, if the place isn't working for your child, you can find another place.

Otherwise, it's mostly the feeling you get from the teacher that will actually be taking care of your child. The director of the center can be great, but that's not who's interacting with your child all day, the teacher is. She should have flexible, creative ideas about how she plans to teach your child.

1. What exactly is the child care arrangement of the facility (this took me a while to figure out when I was new to looking at daycares). With the first daycare that my son went to, they did not staff highly early in the mornings. Therefore, they joined the babies and the toddlers in the mornings and had one/two women looking after the appropriate number of babies/toddlers. My problem with this is that my son was 4 months old and could not crawl/move get away from the toddlers. Toddlers fell on him, traipsed on him, pulled any toy he was holding out of his hands. So, my advice is - find out what the daycare facility does with children early in the mornings and late in the day (if you need those hours). My current daycare joins various classes in the morning, but only from the same age group. In other words, they have 4 three year old classes and those are combined in the morning (appropriate teacher/child ratio). But, they never mix age groups. They always have a teacher in place for each age group.

2. What is their sick child policy? Mine is - fever of 100.3 - kid goes home and can't come back for 24 hours. My daycare will not administer any medication without a doctors note - this is a struggle for me as my kids have asthma. The doctor leaves it to my descretion as to when they need to be on breathing treatments (when I hear wheezing). But, in order for the daycare to administer the medicine, I have to have a current doctor note. Fortunately for me, my doctor's office is willing to fax this in to them based on the fact that I say they are wheezing.

3. At my current daycare, they have a janitorial staff that I see going around and constantly vacuuming/mopping/cleaning. I went to visit another daycare recently because my son is in school and I needed only summer care. My current daycare is expensive and so I was thinking about moving him to another location for summer only care - but when I visited around 3PM, their cafeteria area was filthy. At my current daycare, the teacher wipes down the table that the kids eat at and then later in the day the janitor mops the floors. But at this one daycare I went to look at the tables were absolutely filthy - so the teacher isn't wiping down after a meal, obviously. The filth made me wonder if they could/would have a bug problem since they let the crumbs sit there.

4. What is the policy when a "bug" is going around? At my current daycare, they sterilize and lock a room down at the of the day. In other words, there are 4 three year old rooms. As the number of kids diminish, they will start moving kids over to another room and then they will sterilize the room - washing all of the plastic toys in bleach and wiping down all of the surfaces in bleach (including door knobs). Now, moving the kids over to another room probably spreads sicknesses, but these kids all eat together and play together on the playground during the day anyway. But I seriously think that sterilizing the rooms REALLY helps cut down on sicknesses.

5. what is their diaper changing policy? Do they wear gloves? How often do they change diapers?

6. You can ask what they feed the kids, but in my experience, you will never be happy with the snacks - they all use crackers/cookies some kind of carboydrate. It's never a fruit.

7. Look beyond the age group of your child. I think you are saying your baby is 18 months old, but I am not sure (the comma is throwing me off). If that is the case, check out the 2 year old classroom. In my daycare, the 2 year old classroom is a major step up from baby care. There are a LOT more toys - with interactions. There is a more set "program". They have show and share on Fridays, do sign language and spanish. See what is offered in the age groups as the kids are advancing.

8. Is artwork hung on the walls? Do they do artwork? They should be doing finger painting/shaving cream/ etc - things that are interactive with the kids.

Good luck!
L.